Parallel Paradigms of Artists and Authors

Abstract

Visual artists and their creative writing paradigms exist to complement and inform each other just as the colors in artists’ palettes impact and blend with each other. Moreover, visual arts and writing send an infinite number of messages to the ones who partake of the experience, leaving them forever transformed by the power art to convey information or be expressive. For instance, Andy Warhol’s pop art paintings of Campbell’s Soup Cans show that everyday items and even simple titles like “Campbell’s Soup” can also become artistic concepts regardless of how mundane and anti-aesthetic. Even Edvard Munch communicated his unrequited love through highly linear and expressive paintings so much so they approached a calligraphic rather than exclusively symbolic quality, much like handwriting. Lewis wrote, “Most viewers feel more comfortable with artworks that refer to the world they know; many prefer art that tells a story” (416). Art expresses the mood, personality, and values of the artist in much the same way that writing exudes these valuable insights about the author. Nevertheless, regardless of how different most people consider the visual arts compared to the written medium, visual art paradigms interact and merge with paradigms in writing. Yet a conflict continues to exist between expressivity and the ability to convey useful information.